Entrepreneurship--Not Child’s Play, But Maybe It Should Be
by Michael Matesic
What’s the average age of an entrepreneur? The answer might surprise you. Turns out young guns like Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Aaron Mason (Groupon) are the exception and not the rule.
According to a study from the Kauffman Foundation, the average age of an Entrepreneur is 39. And there are actually more people starting businesses after age 50 than before age 24.
So while the popular perception is that an entrepreneur is a young, free-wheeling, trail blazer, the reality is that most are older and more strategic about starting a new company.
What’s more, the data shows that entrepreneurial success follows the same curve: those starting businesses after age 50 are twice as likely to succeed as those under 35. Experience is thought to play a big part in that disparity.
One entrepreneur who isn’t surprised by these facts is Joshua Kresge, founder and CEO of GeothermalGenius.org.
Kresge, 23, started Geothermal Genius while still an undergrad, studying business at Carnegie Mellon University and playing safety for the Tartan football team.The idea for the business came to him when he and his family were trying to learn about geothermal heating and cooling options for their home. Information was next to impossible to collect and decipher. After months of legwork that eventually resulted in a highly efficient, cost-saving geothermal HVAC install, he was sold on geothermal and set on starting a business to eliminate the roadblocks to its commercial success.
Now graduated, he’s a full time entrepreneur, and Geothermal Genius is fast becoming the de facto directory for geothermal HVAC manufacturers, installers, and contractors, raising public awareness and adoption of geothermal heating and cooling technologies.
But Kresge is an anomaly. In his cohort of scholar/athletes, he is the only one who is pursuing his own business venture.
“All of the guys are doing very well; they’re working on Wall Street or for big corporations now. I think a few of them would have liked to start their own businesses out of school however it’s difficult to turn down the opportunities they had – it’s a large risk to leave that path. Colleges prepare students for a fast track in those careers, they don’t train entrepreneurs”
It wasn’t a risk for Kresge, because it wasn’t a path he considered travelling.
“I never wanted a job, I didn’t bother searching. I wanted to run a business.”
What sets him apart? To hear him tell it, it was a matter of experience. Although Kresge’s parents were not entrepreneurs, his father in particular was an entrepreneurial thinker and encouraged the same in his kids.
“My dad works for a big corporation as an engineer & salesman. When I was a kid, he’d point out things or processes that were poorly designed. And then we’d go about trying to design a better solution and a business around it. He’s a true entrepreneur at heart but he had started down that other path at a young age, then he had a family to take care of…”
He encouraged his kids to travel a different road and not to be discouraged by naysayers. And when Kresge was 15, his father packed him off to an entrepreneur camp that changed the way his life would unfold. He met a kid his own age running a business that sold shoes online.
“And I thought, why not me?” recounts Kresge.
He launched his first business that summer: The Hammock Hutch, an online hammock store. It’s been running and profitable for seven years now. Hammock Hutch and Geothermal Genius provide him with the capital, security and experience needed to confidently launch his next business, and the one after that…
“I wish I could figure out how to make other people less hesitant to choose this path. I think it has to start when you’re a kid. I think you just have to see it happen, see it work, and think, why not me? I’d like to find a way to get more kids to ask that question.”
Maybe that’s a problem he can tackle in start-up three…or four…or five…
Start Me Up appears monthly in the print edition of TEQ Magazine.